Nanotechnology Spotlight – Latest Articles

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Showing Spotlights 17 - 24 of 198 in category All (newest first):

 

Clicking confinement strategy as new breakthrough in fabricating single-atom catalysts

clicking-confinementThe key to fabricate single-atom catalysts is the confinement of transition metal atoms in the precursor, which remains a critical challenge. Addressing this critical challenge, researchers recently proposed clicking confinement strategy as a new synthesis methodology towards the fabrication of single-atom catalysts. This strategy breaks the restrictions on molecular size or symmetry and significantly broadens the fabrication approaches. It also is of great specificity, ensuring the precise construction of single-atom sites with unique structures or distributions.

Mar 17th, 2022

Sustainable batteries roadmap to 2030 and beyond

battery-technologyBATTERY 2030+ is a large-scale cross-sectoral European research initiative bringing together the most important stakeholders in the field of battery R+D to create a strong battery research and innovation ecosystem community. A goal of the project is to develop a long-term roadmap for battery research in Europe. This roadmap suggests research actions towards breakthrough technologies to radically transform the way to discover, develop, and design ultra-high-performance, durable, safe, sustainable, and affordable batteries for use in real applications.

Feb 9th, 2022

Machine Learning assisted computational discovery of two-dimensional energy storage materials

2D-electrode-materialResearchers developed a holistic approach, which predicts both Li-ion storage and supercapacitive properties and hence identifies various important electrode materials that are common to both devices, may pave the way for next-generation energy storage systems. By leveraging the big-data generated by the computational pipeline, the team trains crystal graph-based machine learning models and demonstrates how this data-driven model could be helpful for the rapid discovery of potential materials from other databases.

Jan 13th, 2022

Strategies for improving rechargeable lithium-ion batteries

nanoparticlesEV manufacturing requires more energy and produces more emissions than manufacturing a conventional car because of batteries. There are many unanswered questions about the life-cycle greenhouse gas implications of electric vehicles, especially related to early estimates of battery production emissions. A new review addresses these questions and the advances in new battery chemistries, plus new insights into CO2 emissions from battery manufacturing.

Dec 1st, 2021

Energetic ferroelectrics

electricity-generationResearchers demonstrated that two dissimilar materials - molecular energetic materials and ferroelectrics - can be combined to obtain a chemically driven electrical energy source with high-power density. They obtained chemically driven electrical energy with a high specific power of 1.8 kW/kg and achieve an estimated detonation velocity comparable to trinitrotoluene (TNT) and hexanitrostilbene (HNS). Such a power source could potentially be employed for on-demand energy sources, propulsion, or thermal batteries.

Oct 14th, 2021

Highly efficient separator coating for lithium-sulfur batteries

membrane-coatingLithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries are a promising alternative to lithium-ion batteries because - at least theoretically - they can render 3-6 times higher energy density. In developing Li-S battery technology, researchers have borrowed many components from the mature lithium-ion battery, such as the separator. However, because the working mechanism of Li-S cells is fundamentally different, there is a need for a suitable separator specifically designed for Li-S. Re-engineering the separator can improve the energy density of Li-S batteries.

Aug 5th, 2021

Dual-functional epidermal patch with capability of harvesting and storing the energy in sweat

sweat-on-skinSelf-charging biosupercapacitors (BSCs) that can store energy and be self-charged via chemical or solar energy conversion through bioreaction have recently attracted considerable attention. As human sweat also contains a high concentration of lactate biofuel, the harvesting and storage of the bioenergy in sweat holds the potential to provide the power for wearable electronics. A new wearable hybrid device functions as both a biofuel cell and a supercapacitor.

Jul 8th, 2021

High activity and durable oxygen evolution single atoms supported by tungsten carbide

crystal-particleScientists have used metal carbides as the carrier to support the transition metal Fe and Ni atoms to engineer single-atom oxygen evolution catalysts for the first time. Distinct from previous studies, this novel metal carbide support shows obvious advantages for supporting different single atoms, especially its non-strong bonding features, which resulted in high mobility of the supported atoms, which might be the key point for realizing excellent OER activities.

Jul 2nd, 2021